Many families have pets which are increasingly treated as members of the family. Many pet owners enjoy including their beloved pets in holiday festivities such as birthdays, Christmas, Easter, Valentine's Day, Thanksgiving, and Halloween. As greeting cards are traditionally given to loved ones on such holidays, many pet owners give greeting cards to their pets or send greeting cards from themselves or their pets to the pets of relatives and close friends. Pets do not appreciate the significance of a typical greeting card and do not get any enjoyment out of receiving such a card. The present invention solves the problem of typical greeting cards by providing an edible greeting card which provides enjoyment to the pet as well as the pet owner and sender of the card.
A variety of patents disclose greeting cards which include gifts or where the card itself may be construed as a gift. U.S. Pat. No. 4,203,516 to Stonoga et al. discloses a novelty greeting card wherein a dog biscuit is contained within a non-edible greeting card particularly configured to hold the dog biscuit. The greeting card disclosed by Stonoga et al. requires the pet owner to remove the pet treat from its protective pocket within the non-edible greeting card prior to ingestion by the pet.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,284,365 to Stuart discloses a greeting card assembly having a removable insert containing a message. The message insert, once removed from the greeting card, may be kept as an ornament such as a Christmas tree ornament or other similar decorative item.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,589,047 to Hess discloses a novelty greeting card comprising a substantially three-dimensional caricature which is collapsible onto a base sheet. The caricature is inflated by blowing air into the caricature through a hole in the base sheet, thus providing a three-dimensional gift in a substantially flat greeting card.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,133,496 to Davidson et al. discloses a combination greeting card and gift pouch. A single sheet is tri-folded into a closed pouch, with adhesive provided along the margins of the sheet, thereby enabling the pouch to be sealed and mailed as a greeting card.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,548,527 to Acosta et al. discloses a card having a pivotable rear panel whereby a photograph or other picture may be placed within the card to attractively mount the photo or picture.
Several U.S. patents disclose items which are ingestible by animals, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,681,758 to Fruthaler et al., which discloses shaped, flavored articles which are attractive to masticating animals and have the texture, appearance and aroma of natural food materials. U.S. Pat. No. 4,265,916 to Skoch discloses an animal feed supplement in block form. U.S. Pat. No. 4,777,058 to Chandler discloses a composite animal food having a crunchy shell surrounding a deformable core of edible protein and water soluble solids.
While the prior art provides many varieties of animal foods and greeting cards, the prior art does not address the inherent need of pet owners to demonstrate their affection to their pets in a manner similar to that by which they demonstrate their affection to other humans.
There remains a need for a greeting card which the giver, pet owner and pet may enjoy, and the present invention is directed to resolving that need.